The idea itself is good. Gamers trapped in a virtual game and cannot escape until someone defeats all 100 levels that increase in difficulty? Okay, sounds good. If you die in the game, you die for real? Sounds even better. Want to throw in a little romance? Go right ahead. Create an overpowered male protagonist and throw countless deus ex machina to make him appear as the ultimate hero with forced happy endings? You just ruined my appetite.
SAO started off well with the introduction of the MCs and a little gameplay to familiarize the viewer with the main objective. There are a couple of fillers that step away from the objective to give side characters their spotlight. It’s not completely irrelevant, because you learn more about the rules of SAO that come in handy later on.
If a show has a survival game, there’s nothing wrong with heroic protagonists (Kirito and Asuna in SAO) as long as it's executed properly. Although it starts off well, SAO fails by throwing illogical excuses to make Kirito appear more heroic than he actually is. Regardless of being a beta tester, there are several cases where he receives special treatment for no reason. A prime example is the addition of a moe deus ex machina character (Yui), who is nothing but a cheat code for Kirito and Asuna to give them an advantage over the other players. Yui is just there to answer questions, give tips, and share info that is not revealed to other gamers. SAO has a bad habit of forcing happy endings with the most ridiculous outcomes, leaving several plotholes. This develops Kirito into an obvious Gary Stu with him unexpectedly doing amazing things every single time he reaches a dead end. There are no logical explanations for his skills and talents that appear out of nowhere. It just happens, along with the first arc’s irrational ending.
The second part was worse, and I’m not referring to the incest that takes place. Everything restarts with a new game, new rules, new settings, and new characters. Again, the deus ex machina is all over the place, and Kirito would get nowhere without them. There are love triangles involved, and SAO explores one side and leaves the other side unfinished. It’s difficult also to actually feel for the characters when SAO doesn’t give any logical reasons why the person is in love. Asuna reduces from her role as a powerful fighter to a damsel-in-distress. It takes a huge leap by creating this uncomfortable atmosphere, sexualizing the show with these rape scenes, including tentacle rape.
The romance between Kirito and Asuna was not a bad idea. It was good considering the pacing within two years, so it never led to a cliché and rushed pacing with them immediately falling for each other. Besides Yui, who makes Kirito and Asuna’s story seem like the ultimate romance, things blow way out of proportion when SAO leads into a harem.
The harem aspect of SAO downgrades the characters significantly, but what can you expect when you have an abundance of female characters and an undefeatable hero? It is hardly ever a moment when you find Kirito spending less than a day with another female without her falling for him, and it throws fanservice in your face every time. Then comes the female characters with their dense moments. All of the scenes with Asuna and other females, who intentionally put themselves in danger, appears constantly as an excuse to bring Kirito into the spotlight as the guy who saves the day. If the girls had a motive or logical reasons for making rash decisions, I would excuse that. But since they just talk badass for an instant and step aside for Kirito to finish what they started, it makes the show unattractive.
There are honestly not any memorable characters in SAO. Kirito and Asuna are super attractive. SAO makes it obvious that they’re every woman/man’s wet dream, and nearly everyone envies them and wants to be like them. However, neither one of them have any special traits. Since they’re your typical Gary Stu and Mary Sue characters, there’s no sense for character development. The villains are not evil at all. They’re both pathetic and laughable, and the 2nd villain is more comical than the first one. Each one of them is indecisive, have no logical motive for their wrongdoings, and lack the common knowledge fit for any evildoer. Although most of the female side characters were just there to fall in love in Kirito, some of the serious ones acted realistically in terms of heartbreak. The gamers varied from good guys and bad guys, so it wasn't completely boring with everyone having their own goals.
The animation and OST are good for the most part. The settings and background design were beautiful, and it realistically portrayed the sunsets with shadows and appropriate color contrasts. The gameplay suited the atmosphere, especially when a character died. The character design and outfits were good. One noticeable problem was how the characters did not suit a situation. For example, two characters are in the same drastic situation, but only one character looks frail and unhealthy while the other looks perfectly normal as if nothing happened.
No complaints with the two OPs and EDs. Personally, I liked the ones from the first arc better. The seiyuu were good also, and most of them reacted well emotionally. The background music fitted the virtual world and different situations. It was playful during the laidback scenes and hardcore during the fight scenes. There were a few times when, immediately after a drastic scene, the music becomes cheerful and made me question whether I’m supposed to take a scene seriously or not.
Overall, it is not hard to notice the bad writing of SAO. The idea was good, but the execution was poor. I had high hopes for it in the beginning, thinking “How can someone possibly dislike this?” Then everything went downhill in a hurry. It led to plotholes. The MCs are basically a lie, because they needed help from deus ex machina and never actually worked for their success. The amazing animation and OST were the best parts, but it cannot make up for SAO’s failure with the story and its characters. Let’s hope SAO II is a bit more decent.
